First Shots of the Civil War Fired at Fort Sumter First Shots of the Civil War Fired at Fort Sumter September 11, 2014 Confederate and Union troops fired at each other over one night and two days. Share Copy and paste the embed code below. The code has been copied to your clipboard. From VOA Learning English, this is The Making of a Nation. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. And I’m Christopher Cruise. In late 1860 and early 1861, South Carolina and other southern states withdrew from the Union. They formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America. But Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, said the southern states did not have right to secede. And he said he would not accept the South’s demand to remove U.S. soldiers from South Carolina. The soldiers defended a base in Charleston Harbor called Fort Sumter. So, Confederate leaders ordered an attack. Just before sunrise on April 12, 1861, a shell exploded above Fort Sumter. It was the first shot fired in the American Civil War. Major Robert Anderson led the small force of U.S. soldiers at Fort Sumter.

Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons to answer the Confederate attack. The cannons were in the open at the top of the fort, where the gunners were not protected. Too many of his men would be lost if his force tried to fire these guns. So Anderson had his men fire smaller cannons from better-protected positions. These, however, did not do much damage to the Confederate guns. A big cloud of smoke rose high in the air over Fort Sumter. U.S. Navy sailors could see the smoke a few miles outside Charleston Harbor. They were protecting a ship bringing food for the men at Sumter. But neither the sailors nor the food could reach the fort to help Major Anderson. Confederate boats blocked the entrance to the harbor. And powerful Confederate guns could destroy any ship that tried to enter. Confederate shells continued to smash into Sumter throughout the night and into the morning of a second day. The fires burned higher. Smoke filled the rooms where U.S. soldiers attempted to fire their cannons. About noon, three men arrived at the fort in a small boat. One of them was Louis Wigfall, a former United States senator from Texas, now a Confederate officer. He asked to see Major Anderson.

“I come from General Beauregard," Wigfall said. Beauregard commanded the Confederate troops in Charleston. "It is time to put a stop to this. The flames are raging all around you. And you have defended your flag bravely. Will you leave, sir?" Anderson was ready to stop fighting. His men had done all that could be expected of them. They had fought well against a much stronger enemy. Anderson said he would surrender if he and his men could leave with honor. Wigfall agreed. He told Anderson to lower his country’s flag and the firing would stop. Down came the United States flag. And up went the white flag of surrender. The battle of Fort Sumter was history. More than 4,000 shells had been fired during the 33 hours of fighting. But no one on either side had been killed – yet. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. And I’m Christopher Cruise. This is The Making of a Nation from VOA Learning English. Frank Beardsley and Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this report. ______________________________________________________________ in the open – adj. located outside; not secret neither … nor – conj. indicates two things about which something is not true smash – v.

break into many pieces; destroy brave – adj. having no fear honor – n. respect Fort Sumter: How Civil War Began With a Bloodless Battle Fort Sumter: How Civil War Began With a Bloodless Battle A mule was its only fatality, but the Battle of Fort Sumter nevertheless led to the United States' deadliest war, as historian Mark Jenkins recounts. View Images Historian Mark Collins Jenkins. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, NGS. During the winter of 1860-61, the citizens of Charleston (map) , South Carolina , were so sure that no war would follow their recent move to secede from the United States of America that the fiery editor of the Charleston Mercury supposedly vowed to eat the bodies of all who might be slain as a result. Related Content In This Corner of Turkey, Stories of Conflict, Loss, and Hope Not to be outdone, former U.S. Senator James Chesnut, Jr., promised to drink any blood spilled. After all, "a lady's thimble," as a common saying had it, "will hold all the blood that will be shed." Perhaps the most visible reminder to Charlestonians of the U.S.

government's dominion over them was in their harbor, where atop the lonely bulk of Fort Sumter the Stars and Stripes still flew ( pictures of Fort Sumter before and during the Civil War ). The November election of the notably antislavery Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States had so angered seven slave-owning states that they had chosen to secede and form their own union. Roughly five months later, on April 12, 1861, decades of high-flown oratory were reduced to a struggle for that pile of brick and mortar. (See National Geographic Traveler magazine's top ten U.S. Civil War sites .) Fort Sumter in First Line of Defense Fort Sumter was only one in a series of imposing masonry fortresses, decades in the building, which studded the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Maine to Texas. The nation's single biggest public expenditure and traditionally its first lines of defense, these symbols of sovereignty once carried an aura of impregnability—from without, if not from within. During the four months leading up to Lincoln's Inauguration, the seceding states, one after another, seized federal forts, arsenals, and customs houses within their borders.

There was little to oppose the breakaway forces, a caretaker and a guard or two comprising many of the garrisons. Most of the 16,000 or so regular Army soldiers had been posted to the western frontier to protect settlers against the perceived threat from American Indians. Civil War Inevitable? On March 4, 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated, promising the seceding states that he would use force only "to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places" belonging to the federal government. The stage was set for the inevitable showdown. As of March, only four Southern forts were still under federal control. Two of them, Forts Taylor and Jefferson, were remote way stations in the Florida Keys. They would remain in government hands, useful as prisons and coaling stations throughout the four years of the coming Civil War. The other two federal forts, however, became pawns in a game of war or peace. The Civil War might as easily have erupted at Fort Pickens, outside Pensacola, Florida, as at Fort Sumter. Seen as easier to defend than smaller bastions nearby, both forts had been hastily garrisoned early in the secession crisis.

(Read "Civil War Battlefields" in National Geographic magazine.) Though the plight of both garrisons remained in the public eye, Fort Pickens stood to the outside of Pensacola Bay, while Fort Sumter was positioned in the middle of Charleston Harbor, surrounded by hostile batteries. Sumter, therefore, became a symbol of contested sovereignty. Neither the new President nor the new Confederacy could afford to lose face by surrendering the Charleston fort. The only question was, who would shoot first? In early January the South Carolinians had actually done so, turning away the Star of the West, a federal supply ship, with gunfire. But those were more or less warning shots that kicked up plumes of spray but caused no damage. (See Civil War reenactment pictures .) The Battle of Fort Sumter As March turned to April, Lincoln, having dispatched another relief fleet to supply the beleaguered and increasingly hungry garrison, was willing to shoot his way through if need be. Lincoln soon thought better of it, however, instead informing the rebellious Southerners that the fleet would carry only supplies into Sumter. The warships would remain outside the harbor.

Should the Confederates choose to fire on this "mission of humanity," as Lincoln called the supply run, they would then become the aggressor. The Confederate government, knowing that its claims to sovereignty depended on no "foreign" power occupying any of its coastal forts, decided to act before the relief expedition arrived. Confederate leaders, therefore, ordered Charleston's chief military officer, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, a flamboyant Louisiana Creole, to demand Fort Sumter's surrender. Should that be refused, he was to open fire on the stronghold. James Chesnut, Jr., the former U.S. senator­ who'd pledged to drink the blood of casualties, was one of two emissaries who delivered the ultimatum to an ashen-faced Anderson at 3:25 a.m. on April 12, 1861—150 years ago today. (Related: "Civil War at 150: Expect Subdued Salutes, Rising Voices." ) An hour later a signaling shot curved high in the sky and burst directly over the fort. A cacophonous barrage erupted, as 43 guns and mortars opened up on Sumter.

The pyrotechnic uproar had soon summoned all Charleston to the rooftops, where the citizens spent a sleepless night, watching the arcs of mortar shells. They spent the following day deafened by the din, peering through the smoke. According to Union accounts, the noise was indescribable within the Fort Sumter's brick gun enclosures, but Anderson's men gamely returned fire, discharging about a thousand rounds as opposed to the almost four thousand shells that smashed into their walls or dropped into their courtyard. Fires were devouring the barracks and edging dangerously close to the powder magazine by the time the white flag came fluttering up Sumter's flagstaff, some 34 hours after the bombardment had begun. The opening gunfire of the Civil War—the first shots exchanged in anger between the United States and the Confederate States—then fell silent. ( Interactive Map: Battlefields of the Civil War. ) As the smoke cleared the toll of battle was taken, and it amounted to one mule. Not a single person had been killed (though one man soon died in an accidental explosion). The South had indeed won the contest over that symbol of sovereignty without spilling enough blood to fill a thimble. Or had it?

Fort Sumter Battle a "Bolt From the Sky" By firing first, the Confederates had allowed Lincoln to claim the high ground. On April 15, some 75,000 Union loyalists volunteered to help "repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union." The Northern states fell in behind Lincoln, while Virginia , North Carolina , and Tennessee duly tumbled into the Confederacy. But the Battle of Fort Sumter was a call to arms for both sides. The great convulsion had come at last, releasing stresses accumulated over generations of sectional strife. "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky," wrote the ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and the "cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end. ... " Huge, flag-waving crowds gathered in cities and towns across the country, flushed with a kind of mass hysteria, a contagious abandon, an almost suicidal zeal.

"It is a war of purification," claimed Virginia's Governor Henry Wise, "You want war, blood, fire, to purify you." Hundreds of thousands of young militiamen, parading by torchlight to the dazzle of fireworks and the music of bands, soon marched into the crucible. Many of them would never return, for the war that was ignited that April night would eventually cost nearly 620,000 men their lives—2 percent of the United States' population at the time, and nearly as many as those killed in all the country's other wars combined. The shooting was practically over by April 14, 1865, when—four years to the day after the Stars and Stripes had been lowered in defeat—the U.S. flag again rose over the rubble of Fort Sumter. But one more bullet found its victim that night. While watching a play in Washington, D.C.'s Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

The dislocations of the Civil War "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character," as writers Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner put it in 1873, "that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." Nearly five generations have now passed since the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, and still their reverberations are being felt. Mark Collins Jenkins, a historian formerly with the National Geographic Society, is co-author of the new book The Civil War: A Visual History . MORE FORT SUMTER AND CIVIL WAR COVERAGE The First Shot of the Civil War, 1861 The First Shot of the Civil War The Surrender of Fort Sumter, 1861 Printer Friendly Version >>> The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 provoked the secession of the Southern States from the Union. South Carolina was the first to leave. By the time of the convening of a constitutional convention to establish the Confederacy in February 1861, six other states had joined her. The majority of the Southern leaders who attended the convention expected a peaceful secession; they did not anticipate that their action would lead to bloody conflict. They were wrong.

Fort Sumter, lying in the harbor off the city of Charleston, South Carolina, would prove the point. Firing on Fort Sumter From a contemporary illustration. After her secession from the Union, South Carolina perceived herself as a sovereign state - the presence of Union forces in an armed fortress whose guns commanded her principal harbor was intolerable as it belied her independence. For President Lincoln the voluntary abandonment of this fortress was equally intolerable as it would be a tacit acknowledgment of South Carolina's independent status. Lincoln learned that the garrison at Fort Sumter was in trouble on the day he took office in March 1861. The garrison was running out of food and supplies and had no way of obtaining these on shore. The President ordered a relief expedition to sail immediately and informed the Governor of South Carolina of his decision. Alerted, General P.G.T Beauregard, commander of the Confederate military forces, realized he had to quickly force the evacuation of the fort before the relief expedition's arrival. He would try threats first, and if these failed he would bombard the fort into submission.

"...that shot was a sound of alarm that brought every soldier in the harbor to his feet." On the afternoon of April 11, waving a white flag, two members of General Beauregard's staff were rowed across Charleston's harbor to Fort Sumter carrying a written demand for surrender. One of the emissaries - Stephen D. Lee - wrote of the experience after the war: "This demand was delivered to Major Anderson at 3:45 P.M., by two aides of General Beauregard, James Chesnut, Jr., and myself. At 4:30 P.M. he handed us his reply, refusing to accede to the demand; but added, 'Gentlemen, if you do not batter the fort to pieces about us, we shall be starved out in a few days.' The reply of Major Anderson was put in General Beauregard's hands at 5:15 P.M., and he was also told of this informal remark. Anderson's reply and remark were communicated to the Confederate authorities at Montgomery. The Secretary of War, L.P. Walker, replied to Beauregard as follows:" 'Do not desire needlessly to bombard Fort Sumter.

If Major Anderson will state the time at which, as indicated by him, he will evacuate, and agree that in the meantime he will not use his guns against us, unless ours should be employed against Fort Sumter, you are authorized thus to avoid the effusion of blood. If this, or its equivalent, be refused, reduce the fort as your judgment decides to be most practicable.' " The same aides bore a second communication to Major Anderson, based on the above instructions, which was placed in, his hands at 12:45 A.M., April 12th. His reply indicated that he would evacuate the fort on the 15th, provided he did not in the meantime receive contradictory instructions from his Government, or additional supplies, but he declined to agree not to open his guns upon the Confederate troops, in the event of any hostile demonstration on their part against his flag. Major Anderson made every possible effort to retain the aides till daylight, making one excuse and then another for not replying. Finally, at 3:15 A.M., he delivered his reply.

In accordance with their instructions, the aides read it and, finding it unsatisfactory, gave Major Anderson this notification:" 'FORT SUMTER, S.C., April 12, 1861, 3:20 A.M. - SIR: By authority of Brigadier-General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time. We have the honor to be very respectfully, Your obedient servants, JAMES CHESNUT JR., Aide-de-camp. STEPHEN D. LEE, Captain C. S. Army, Aide-de-camp.' "The above note was written in one of the casemates of the fort, and in the presence of Major Anderson and several of his officers. On receiving it, he was much affected. He seemed to realize the full import of the consequences, and the great responsibility of his position.

Escorting us to the boat at the wharf, he cordially pressed our hands in farewell, remarking, 'If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next.' It was then 4 A.M. Captain James at once aroused his command, and arranged to carry out the order. He was a great admirer of Roger A. Pryor, and said to him, 'You are the only man to whom I would give up the honor of firing the first gun of the war'; and he Fort Sumter after the battle The Confederate Flag flies above it offered to allow him to fire it. Pryor, on receiving the offer, was very much agitated. With a husky voice he said, 'I could not fire the first gun of the war.' His manner was almost similar to that of Major Anderson as we left him a few moments before on the wharf at Fort Sumter. Captain James would allow no one else but himself to fire the gun.

The boat with the aides of General Beauregard left Fort Johnson before arrangements were complete for the firing of the gun, and laid on its oars, about one-third the distance between the fort and Sumter, there to witness the firing of 'the first gun of the war' between the States. It was fired from a ten-inch mortar at 4:30 A.M., April 12th, 1861. Captain James was a skillful officer, and the firing of the shell was a success. It burst immediately over the fort, apparently about one hundred feet above. The firing of the mortar woke the echoes from every nook and corner of the harbor, and in this the dead hour of the night, before dawn, that shot was a sound of alarm that brought every soldier in the harbor to his feet, and every man, woman and child in the city of Charleston from their beds. A thrill went through the whole city. It was felt that the Rubicon was passed. No one thought of going home; unused as their ears were to the appalling sounds, or the vivid flashes from the batteries, they stood for hours fascinated with horror." References: Stephen Lee's account appears in: Buel, Clarence, and Robert U.

Johnson, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I (1888, reprinted. 1982); McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988); Niven, John, The Coming of the Civil War 1837-1861 (1990). How To Cite This Article: "The First Shot of the Civil War: The Surrender of Fort Sumter, 1861" EyeWitness to History, (2006). Fort Sumter returned the Confederate fire. The artillery duel continued throughout April 12 and into the following day. Slowly, the fort was being destroyed. Fire broke out and threatened to explode the gunpowder stored in the fort's magazine. At mid-day on April 13 a white flag of surrender was raised and the garrison evacuated the fort on the 14th. The next day, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to help put down the rebellion. Amazingly, there were no deaths on either side during the battle.

Fort Sumter - American Civil War - HISTORY.com Google Fort Sumter: Construction and Design Fort Sumter was first built in the wake of the War of 1812 (1812-1815), which had highlighted the United States’ lack of strong coastal defenses. Named for Revolutionary War general and South Carolina native Thomas Sumter, Fort Sumter was one of nearly 50 forts built as part of the so-called Third System, a coastal defense program implemented by Congress in 1817. The three-tiered, five-sided fort’s coastal placement was designed to allow it to control access to the vital Charleston Harbor. While the island itself was only 2.4 acres in size, the fort was built to accommodate a garrison of 650 soldiers and 135 artillery pieces. Did You Know? There were no casualties during the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter at the start of the American Civil War. The only Union deaths came during the evacuation: One soldier was killed and another mortally wounded in an accidental explosion during a planned 100-gun salute.

Construction of Fort Sumter first began in 1829 in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, on a manmade island built from thousands of tons of granite. Building ground to a halt in the 1830s amid a dispute over ownership of the stretch of the harbor, and did not resume until 1841. Like many Third System fortifications, Fort Sumter proved a costly endeavor, and construction slowed again in 1859 due to lack of funding. By 1860 the island and the outer fortifications were complete, but the fort’s interior and armaments remained unfinished. Fort Sumter: The First Battle of Fort Sumter Construction of Fort Sumter was still underway when South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Despite Charleston’s position as a major port, at the time only two companies of federal troops guarded the harbor. Commanded by Major Robert Anderson (1805-1871), these companies were stationed at Fort Moultrie, a dilapidated fortification facing the coastline.

Recognizing that Fort Moultrie was vulnerable to a land assault, Anderson elected to abandon it for the more easily defensible Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860. South Carolina militia forces would seize the city’s other forts shortly thereafter, leaving Fort Sumter as the lone federal outpost in Charleston. A standoff ensued until January 9, 1861, when a ship called the Star of the West arrived in Charleston with over 200 U.S. troops and supplies intended for Fort Sumter. South Carolina militia batteries fired upon the vessel as it neared Charleston Harbor, forcing it to turn back to sea. Major Anderson refused repeated calls to abandon Fort Sumter, and by March 1861 there were over 3,000 militia troops besieging his garrison. A number of other U.S. military facilities in the Deep South had already been seized, and Fort Sumter was viewed by many as one of the South’s few remaining hurdles to overcome before achieving sovereignty. With the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) in March 1861, the situation soon escalated.

Knowing that Anderson and his men were running out of supplies, Lincoln announced his intention to send three unarmed ships to relieve Fort Sumter. Having already declared that any attempt to resupply the fort would be seen as an act of aggression, South Carolina militia forces soon scrambled to respond. On April 11, militia commander P.G.T. Beauregard (1818-1893) demanded that Anderson surrender the fort, but Anderson again refused. In response Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter shortly after 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861. U.S. Captain Abner Doubleday (1819-1893)—later famous for the myth that he invented baseball—ordered the first shots in defense of the fort a few hours later. Beauregard’s 19 coastal batteries unleashed a punishing barrage on Fort Sumter, eventually firing an estimated 3,000 shots at the citadel in 34 hours. By Saturday, April 13, cannon fire had broken through the fortress’s five-foot-thick brick walls, causing fires inside the post.

With his stores of ammunition depleted, Anderson was forced to surrender the fort shortly after 2 p.m. in the afternoon. No Union troops had been killed during the bombardment, but two men died the following day in an explosion that occurred during an artillery salute held before the U.S. evacuation. The bombardment of Fort Sumter would play a major part in triggering the Civil War. In the days following the assault, Lincoln issued a call for Union volunteers to quash the rebellion, while more Southern states including Virginia , North Carolina and Tennessee cast their lot with the Confederacy. Fort Sumter: Later Civil War Engagements Following Beauregard’s bombardment in 1861, Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumter and used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard. The first Union assault on Fort Sumter came in April 1863, when Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont (1803-1865) attempted a naval attack on Charleston.

Commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Du Pont arrived in Charleston with a fleet of nine ironclad warships, seven of which were updated versions of the famed USS Monitor. While Du Pont had hoped to recapture Fort Sumter—by then a symbol of the Confederate rebellion—his attack was poorly coordinated and met with unfavorable weather conditions. In collaboration with Fort Sumter, Confederate batteries commanded by P.G.T. Beauregard hammered the ironclad fleet with artillery fire, and underwater mines posed a constant threat to the ships’ hulls. Outgunned and unable to properly maneuver in heavy currents, Du Pont’s fleet eventually withdrew from the harbor after taking over 500 hits by Confederate guns. Only one Union soldier was killed during the battle, but one of the ironclads, the Keokuk, sank the next day. Five Confederates were killed during the attack, but the damage to Fort Sumter was soon repaired and its defenses improved. Confederate soldiers even managed to salvage one of the Keokuk’s 11-inch Dahlgren guns and mount it on the fortress.

In July 1863 Union troops laid siege to Fort Wagner, a valuable post on Morris Island near the mouth of Charleston Harbor. After being met with heavy fire from Fort Sumter, Union General Quincy Adams Gillmore (1825-1888) turned his guns on the fort and unleashed a devastating seven-day bombardment. On September 8 a force of nearly 400 Union troops attempted to land at Fort Sumter and capture the post by force. Union Rear Admiral John Dahlgren (1809-1870) mistakenly believed the fort was manned by a skeleton crew, but the landing party was met by over 300 Confederate infantry, who easily repulsed the assault. Following the failed infantry attack, Union forces on Morris Island recommenced their bombing campaign on Fort Sumter. Over the next 15 months, Union artillery effectively leveled Fort Sumter, eventually firing nearly 50,000 projectiles at the fort between September 1863 and February 1865. Despite suffering over 300 casualties from the Union bombardments, the beleaguered Confederate garrison managed to retain control of the fort until February 1865.

Only when Union General William T. Sherman was poised to capture Charleston did the Confederates finally evacuate. Union forces would reclaim Fort Sumter on February 22, 1865. Robert A. Anderson and Abner Doubleday, the two commanding officers from the original siege of Fort Sumter, would both return to the fortress on April 14, 1865, for a flag raising ceremony. Fort Sumter: Post-Civil War Use After the Civil War the derelict Fort Sumter was rebuilt and partially redesigned. It would see little use during the 1870s and 1880s and was eventually reduced to serving as a lighthouse station for Charleston Harbor. With the start of the Spanish-American War (1898), the fortress was rearmed and once again used as a coastal defense installation. It would later see service during both World War I (1914-18) and World War II (1939-45). In 1948 Fort Sumter was decommissioned as a military post and turned over to the National Park Service. It now attracts over 750,000 visitors every year.

Tags nationdivided - First Shots of the Civil War nationdivided First Shots of the Civil War - Who The North vs. The South; the American people - What The first military action of the civil war was at the Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina;the start of the only civil war of United States. - When The bombardment started on April 12, 1861, and ended the next day. On April 12, 1861 -Where At Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina;Fort Sumter Charleston, South Carolina Why- Abraham Lincoln became the president and the southern states secceeded from the union -Interesting Facts 1. Fort Sumter was the most important fort at the start of the civil war. 2. The shell which opened the bombardment of Fort Sumter was fired from a mortar located at Fort Johnson on James Island 3. The first shots were fired on April 12 at 4:30 A.M. 4. Fort Sumter was there to protect Charleston and its harbor 5.The battle at Fort Sumter was the official start of the civil war 6. The walls of the fort were 50 feet high and 8 feet thick. 7.

The Union took back Fort Sumter just days before Lee's surrender. 8. Only one person died in the battle. 9. The Confederates had 43 cannons. 10. Fort Sumter was named after General Thomas Sumter. The first shots of the civil war were fired on April 12th, 1861. On this day, the Confederate States of America (the South) fired on the North's army base Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The South seceded from the Union due to Abraham Lincoln becoming president and the shots followed soon after. This bombardment of Fort Sumter started the whole Civil War. Quotes "Our Southern brethren have done grievously, they have rebelled and have attacked their father's house and their loyal brothers. They must be punished and brought back, but this necessity breaks my heart."— Major Robert AndersonGoogle Books: The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865 3 ** "The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen...you will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean.

Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."—Written to Jefferson Davis by Robert Toombs about Fort Sumter "I sprang out of bed." she wrote. "And on my knees--prostrate--I prayed as I never prayed before." - Diarist Mary Chestnut "What a change now greets us! The Government is aroused, the dead North is alive, and its divided people united...The cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end, and war till the traitors are effectually and permanently put down."— Frederick Douglass in May 1861 .Google Books: The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War [[#cite_note-5|5 ]] Additional Information First Shots of the American Civil War Previous: Causes | Civil War 101 | Next: War in the East, 1862-1863 Birth of the Confederacy In February 1861, delegates from the seven seceded states met in Montgomery, AL and formed the Confederate States of America.

Working through the month, they produced the Confederate States Constitution which was adopted on March 11. This document mirrored the US Constitution in many ways, but provided for the explicit protection of slavery as well as espoused a stronger philosophy of states' rights. To lead the new government, the convention selected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as president and Alexander Stephens of Georgia as vice president. Davis, a Mexican-American War veteran, had previously served as a US Senator and Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce . Lincoln and the South At his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln stated that the US Constitution was a binding contract and that the Southern states' secession had no legal basis. Continuing, he said that he had no intention of ending slavery where it already existed and did not plan on invading the South. He was, however willing to use force to retain possession of federal installations in the seceded states. Attempts to Relieve Fort Sumter As of April 1861, the US only retained control of two forts in the South: Fort Pickens at Pensacola, FL and Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC.

Shortly after South Carolina seceded, the commander of the Charleston harbor defenses, Major Robert Anderson, moved his men from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, located on a sandbar in the middle of the harbor. After refusing requests from the South Carolina government to vacate the fort, Anderson and the eighty-five men of his garrison settled in for what essentially became a siege. In January 1861, President Buchanan attempted to re-supply the fort, however the supply ship, Star of the West, was driven away by guns manned by cadets from the Citadel. Fort Sumter Attacked During March 1861, a debate raged in the Confederate government regarding how forceful they should be in trying to take possession of Forts Sumter and Pickens. Davis, like Lincoln, did not wish to anger the border states by appearing as the aggressor. With supplies low, Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina, Francis W. Pickens, that he intended to have the fort re-provisioned, but promised that no additional men or munitions would be sent. This news was passed to Davis in Montgomery, where the decision was made to compel the fort's surrender before Lincoln's ships arrived. This duty fell to Gen.

P.G.T. Beauregard who had been given command of the siege by Davis. Ironically, Beauregard had previously been a protégé of Anderson. On April 11, Beauregard sent an aide to demand the fort's surrender. Anderson refused and further discussions after midnight failed to resolve the situation. At 4:30am on April 12, a single mortar round burst over Fort Sumter signaling the other harbor forts to open fire. Anderson did not reply until 7:00 when Captain Abner Doubleday fired the first shot for the Union. After a 34-hour bombardment, and with his ammunition almost exhausted, Anderson surrendered the fort. Lincoln's Call for Volunteers & Further Secession In response to the attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 90-day volunteers to put the rebellion down and ordered the US Navy to blockade Southern ports. While the Northern states readily sent troops, those states in the upper South hesitated. Unwilling to fight fellow Southerners, the states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina opted to secede and joined the Confederacy.

In response, the capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, VA. On April 19, 1861, the first Union troops arrived in Baltimore, MD on their way to Washington. While marching from one train station to another they were attacked by a pro-Southern mob. In the riot that ensued twelve civilians and four soldiers were killed. To pacify the city, protect Washington, and ensure that Maryland remained in the Union, Lincoln declared martial law in the state and sent troops. The Anaconda Plan Created by Mexican-American War hero and commanding general of the US Army Winfield Scott , the Anaconda Plan was designed to end the conflict as quickly and bloodlessly as possible. Scott called for the blockade of Southern ports, capture of the vital Mississippi River to split the Confederacy in two, as well as advised against a direct attack on Richmond. Though mocked by the press, most elements of the plan were implemented and ultimately led the Union to victory. The First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) As troops gathered in Washington, Lincoln appointed Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell to organize them into the Army of Northeastern Virginia.

Though concerned about his men's inexperience, McDowell was forced to advance south in July due to growing political pressure and the impending expiration of the volunteers' enlistments. Moving with 28,500 men, McDowell planned to attack a 21,900-man Confederate army under Beauregard near Manassas Junction. This was to be supported by Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson who was to march against an 8,900-man Confederate force commanded by Gen. Joseph Johnston in the western part of the state. As McDowell approached Beauregard's position, he looked for a way to outflank his opponent. This led to a skirmish at Blackburn's Ford on July 18. To the west, Patterson had failed to pin down Johnston's men, allowing them to board trains and move east to reinforce Beauregard. On July 21, McDowell moved forward and attacked Beauregard. His troops succeeded in breaking the Confederate line and forcing them to fall back on their reserves. Rallying around Brig. Gen. Thomas J.

Jackson 's Virginia Brigade, the Confederates stopped the retreat and, with the addition of fresh troops, turned the tide of the battle, routing McDowell's army and forcing them to flee back to Washington. Casualties for the battle were 2,896 (460 killed, 1,124 wounded, 1,312 captured) for the Union and 982 (387 killed, 1,582 wounded, 13 missing) for the Confederates. whatssocivilaboutthecivilwar - Fort Sumter Fort Sumter Export (PDF) General Information: Photograph of the inside of Fort Sumter 1861: Fort was under Confederate control at this point in the war ( When it happened: Major Robert Anderson (US) & General Beauregard (CS) Who won: What Happened during the battle: As the Southern states succeeded from the Union, Union army forces found themselves isolated. One such Garrison, was in Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison refused to surrender, therefore South Carolina artillery opened fire. These were the first shots fired in the Civil War.

The union troops had no way to contact their superiors for naval support or relief so after 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrendered. Fort Sumter was the first battle of the Civil War and resulted in a Confederate victory. President Lincoln's Instructions to Major Anderson Lasting Legacy: Fort Sumter represented the initiation between the Confederacy and the Union. As the place where the first shots were fired, it shares a place in American history alongside Pearl Harbor as the first battle in this war. Just like Pearl Harbor, the siege of Fort Sumter became a rallying cry for the United States. It gave the union the moral high ground of saying that the confederacy fired the first shot. While the battle itself was not militarily decisive, it was used as a rallying point for both sides. For the South, it was the first battle with the Union and it resulted in Confederate victory, although under the circumstances that victory was a four gone conclusion. For the Union, it was the realization that this would be a shooting war, not a political one. It would be used as a recruiting tool for the Union cause.

Links: President Lincoln's Instructions: In this letter to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, President Lincoln is explaining that he saw anxiety in the last letter he had recieved from Major Anderson and wants to instruct him in what to do next. Lincoln asks Anderson to hold out for a few more days if he can before the battle started and to use his own judgement in what to do if the Confederacy attacks earlier. Political Cartoon About Fort Sumter Polical Cartoon: The two men in the cartoon are Governor Pickens of South Carolina (on the left) and President James Buchanan (on the right). This is before the election of Lincoln, which was the main catalyst in the succession of South Carolina. Pickens is giving Buchanan a choice to either surrender the fort or else he will start a war. Therefore giving Buchanan "South Carolina's 'Ultimatum'". Buchanan is asking him to wait until he is out of office so he does not have to deal withit. However, the cannon that Pickens is threatening to fire, is pointed at himself. This creates the meaning that by South Carolina starting the war, it is just going to backfire at them.

Map of Battle at Fort Sumter: Displays the movement of both forces throughout the battle Painting of Fort Sumter being attacked in the early morning of April 12th: Created by a bystander who watched the attack from the shore. This is probably somewhat exaggerated however, that is expected considering that this was the beginning of what was to be a very violent war. ( Fort Sumter Monument Today: Tourists can visit the site of the first battle in the American Civil War Works Cited "Battle Summary: Fort Sumter, SC." U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Park Net: National Park Service. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. < >. Fort Sumter 1861 in Confederate Hands. 1861. Photograph. "President Lincoln's Instructions to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter." Letter to Major Anderson. 4 Apr. 1861. MS. Washington D.C. "South Carolina's "Ultimatum"" Cartoon. House Divided. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. < >. "Sketch Showing Position of Besieging Batteries." Map. Www.history-map.com. Www.history-map.com. Web. 28 Mar.

2011. < >. The Battle of Fort Sumter Summary & Facts | Civilwar.org April 12 - 14, 1861 Charleston Harbor, South Carolina When South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860, United States Maj. Robert Anderson and his force of 85 soldiers were positioned at Fort Moultrie near the mouth of Charleston Harbor. On December 26, fearing for the safety of his men, Anderson moved his command to Fort Sumter, an imposing fortification in the middle of the harbor. While politicians and military commanders wrote and screamed about the legality and appropriateness of this provocative move, Anderson’s position became perilous. Just after the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1861, Anderson reported that he had only a six week supply of food left in the fort and Confederate patience for a foreign force in its territory was wearing thin. On Thursday, April 11, 1861, Confederate Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard dispatched aides to Maj. Anderson to demand the fort’s surrender. Anderson refused.

The next morning, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter and continued for 34 hours. The Civil War had begun! Anderson did not return the fire for the first two hours. The fort's supply of ammunition was not suited for an equal fight and Anderson lacked fuses for his exploding shells--only solid shot could be used against the Rebel batteries. At about 7:00 A.M., Union Capt. Abner Doubleday, the fort's second in command, was afforded the honor of firing the first shot in defense of the fort. The firing continued all day, although much less rapidly since the Union fired aimed to conserve ammunition. "The crashing of the shot, the bursting of the shells, the falling of the walls, and the roar of the flames, made a pandemonium of the fort," wrote Doubleday. The fort's large flag staff was struck and the colors fell to the ground and a brave lieutenant, Norman J. Hall, bravely exposed himself to enemy fire as he put the Stars and Stripes back up. That evening, the firing was sporadic with but an occasional round landing on or in Fort Sumter.

On Saturday, April 13, Anderson surrendered the fort. Incredibly, no soldiers were killed in battle. The generous terms of surrender, however, allowed Anderson to perform a 100-gun salute before he and his men evacuated the fort the next day. The salute began at 2:00 P.M. on April 14, but was cut short to 50 guns after an accidental explosion killed one of the gunners and mortally wounded another. Carrying their tattered banner, the men marched out of the fort and boarded a boat that ferried them to the Union ships outside the harbor. They were greeted as heroes on their return to the North. Fort Sumter Animated Map Our Fort Sumter Animated Map depicts the pivotal events from Secession up to the first shots of the Civil War and beyond.

Fort Sumter: Civil War's First Shots Remembered At Historic Batteground (PHOTOS) | The Huffington Post Fort Sumter: Civil War's First Shots Remembered At Historic Batteground (PHOTOS) 04/12/2011 11:51 am ET | Updated Jun 12, 2011 Two glowing beams of light were cast into the sky early this morning at South Carolina's Fort Sumter, the site where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired 150 years ago today. The day marks the beginning of a four-year national commemoration for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War , which claimed over 620,000 American lives from the divided nation. Check out these photos from the memorial and today's Civil War reenactments at Fort Sumter. 1

Question: In which US state is Fort Sumter where the first shots were fired in the American Civil War?
Answer: SOUTH CAROLINA